Well, the Nationals just traded three very, very good pitching prospects for one very good outfielder in a move that was shocking to baseball insiders, let alone Nats fans.

In case you’re not sure what we’re talking about: Nats acquired Adam Eaton, he of the 6-win 2016 season and his ridiculously team-friendly contract (he’s signed with options through 2021 for just a measly $38.4M). In return we gave up three of our four best starting pitching prospects in the form of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and 2016 1st rounder Dane Dunning.

To put things in a different way: we just acquired 5 years of Eaton for a combined potential of nearly *twenty* years of rotation pieces for the south siders. We likely made their rotation for the next decade with this move, even if you take an entirely pessimistic viewpoint of the ceilings of all three of these players.

For me; it was too much to pay (in case you couldn’t tell how I felt from the title of the post). The Nats just traded away literally all their near-to-the-majors starter depth in a complete win-now move that, while I’ve been advocating for it, seemed like an overpay. I could see/make the argument for Giolito and Dunning, or Lopez+Dunning, but all three seems gratuitous. Ironic because i’ve just beek talking about not over-valuing your prospects.

The best case scenario for these three arms is a #1, #2 and #5 starter for years to come. But since best case is never going to happen, lets take some worst-case scenarios for these three guys we just traded. I know Giolito’s critics are large here, but bear with me:

Giolito never harnesses his control and turns into essentially Alex Meyers.

Lopez never develops a secondary pitch and is turned into a late-inning 100-mph reliever

Dunning’s craftiness only takes him as far as a 5th starter or middle-relief guy for a middling team.

Still, that’s three major league arms, cost controlled first round talents with their bonus money already paid for. The reality will be somewhere in the middle.

What this deal says is the high price of a good contract. Eaton is getting paid absolute peanuts compared to the value he’s producing, he plays (or can play) a valuable position, and that’s really what the cost was all about. If Eaton was on a $18M/year contract he’s only costing one of those three arms in return.

Interesting that literally as soon as this trade occurred, you started seeing people “in the know” talking about how the Nationals had “soured” on Giolito. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it soon; whispers about work ethic and approach. Where were these comments yesterday?

Get ready for spot-starts from A.J. Cole and Austin Voth; you don’t get through modern baseball seasons on 5 starters anymore, and we don’t exactly have the most reliable rotation.

I suspect Danny Espinosa (who is now patently surplus to requirements) gets flipped for hopefully an optionable starter to give us some more depth. I like Voth and am excited to see what he can do … but i’m not trusting him to give this team 4-5 starts and compete.

Our respectable farm system is now gutted: no matter what you think of these three arms heading the other way, they were #1, #3 and #6 prospects in our system. We have mortgaged the future for the present in a large way.

Nats new Lineup: Eaton (CF), Turner (SS), Harper (RF), Murphy (2B), Rendon (3B), Werth (LF), Zimmerman (1B), Norris (C). Decent lefty-righty balance which could be stretched a bit if you broke up Harper & Murphy. Eaton makes a bit more sense at leadoff since Turner has proven to have a bit more power than we thought, and Eaton is a lefty, but I could see them switched and then going Harper-Rendon-Murphy or something like that so you don’t have 3 lefties in a row. But this is now a pretty fast lineup at the top.

Dane Dunning was a 1st round pick and was arguably the best producer in 2016 of his draft class. Photo via gatorcountry.com

Editor note: from this post forward i’m going to start tweeting out via the new Nationals Arm Race twitter account. @natsarmrace is the account. I’m going to try to do a better job promoting the blog and its posts since, hey, why not. Feel free to follow me there and retweet if you’re into that to get more people involved in the discussion.

In years past, I’ve adapted a topic stolen from minorleagueball.com’s John Sickels and reviewed all our draft classes statistically. Last years set of posts (2015 draft class, 2014 draft class, 2013 draft class, 2012 draft class and 2011 draft class) turned into a great way to see how everyone was doing, and helped me write rotation reviews later on. So let’s do it again! Using last year’s posts to help make this year’s writing go better, we’re going to do another series of posts on each draft class.

First up; 2016’s class. Here’s a fast review of the 2016 draft class, looking at their 2016 numbers and making some snap judgments.

Web links to use while reading:

Stats are pulled from milb.com and/or fangraphs.com; put the player name into the search bar to get his seasonal stats

The MLB.com Draft Tracker (which I believe is the best draft tracker out there) is the best place to get draft class information.

More obscure stats on players are sometimes found at places like thebaseballcube.com, perfectgame.org, their college websites, twitter accounts for the players, and good old fashioned deep-dive googling.

At the end of each player write-up i’ll put in a color coded trending line for the player: Green for Trending Up, Blue for Trending steady, Red for Trending Down. This is just my knee-jerk opinion of the prospect status of the player system-wide. And yes I realize this is their first pro ball season, short-sample sizes, scouting the stat line, etc etc. So apologies in advance if you think i’m being too harsh passing judgement on a 15 inning sample size. Of course I am; what else are we going to argue about this off-season? :-). I solicit any and all feedback from those who actually saw the games, who think differently or who have inside information that i’ve missed here (like last year when we found out that Perkins was converting to switch hitting).

Without further ado:

Round 1: Carter Kieboom, SS, Walton HS (Georgia). Slashed .244/.323/.452 in 135 at-bats in the GCL, signing four days after being drafted and thus getting as full of a season in as could be expected. 43/12 K/BB in 135 ABs, 4 homers, 1 SB in 36 games. He played SS exclusively and made 9 errors in 31 games in the field. When he did hit the ball, he hit for a decent amount of power (.452 slugging). At age 18 he’s still a year and a half younger than the average age of the GCL, so this is a positive start. Still, I think he’d be hard pressed to make a full season squad in 2017, so I’d expect him to repeat GCL in 2017. Trending Steady.

Round 1: Dane Dunning, RHP (starter) Coll Jr from UFlorida. 3-2, 2.14 ERA in Short-A (ignoring 2 innings at the GCL) with 29/7 K/BB in 33 2/3IP (7 app, 7 starts, 1 CG). 0.98 whip, 2.57 FIP, .263 babip. He gave up 26 hits and one homer in those 33 innings, which is more or less in-line with the numbers he posted for the University of Florida his junior year in a swing-man role. I like Dunning and I like his approach; he comes right at you, doesn’t shy away from contact, and makes you hit his pitch. He had a sub 1.00 whip, which is great from a starter at any level. He doesn’t have eye-popping stuff, but he seems to consistently getting guys out. You can’t ask for a better apprenticeship than Florida and SEC baseball, so he seems like a good candidate to jump from Low-A to High-A next season. Trending Up.

Round 2: Sheldon Neuse, 3B Coll Jr. from Oklahoma. Slashed .230/.305/.341 in 36 games in Short-A. 26/13 K/BB in 126 ABs, 1HR, 2SB. Played mostly 3B (filled in 6 games at Short) and made 5 errors in 222 innings while playing third. Neuse struggled a bit in his first pro season, not hitting anywhere close to the .369/.465/.646 slash line he put up in his stellar junior year. And he ended up missing nearly half the season in two separate stints of inactivity. I’d definitely say this is a disappointing debut season, but luckily for Neuse he’s a big bonus kid so he’ll get plenty of time to work things out. I fully expect to see him starting at 3B for Hagerstown next year; he’s not going to be kept in XST to start the year. Though I will say it was interesting to see that a 17th rounder from this same draft “jumped” Neuse and finished the year starting at 3B for Low-A (more on that later). Trending Steady, barely.

Round 3: Jesus Luzardo, LHP (starter) from S. Douglas HS (FL). No Stats in 2016; he had Tommy John surgery on 3/22/16 and spent the season on the GCL D/L. We’ll see him in the GCL next year. Trending Steady.

Round 4: Nick Banks, OF (Corner) Coll Jr. from Texas A&M: Slashed .277/.310/.320 in 60 games in Short-A. 37/11 K/BB in 231 ABs, Zero homers, 7 SBs. Not a ton of power from Banks in his first pro season; he slugged just 10 points higher than his OBP. Banks is a tough one; I loved this pick back in June, so I’m not going to kill him yet, but clearly we need to see a bit more from a guy who is already relegated to a corner OF position. I suppose its possible he’s still affected by the back surgery he had in late 2015 (that was the excuse for his college junior stats falling off), but that’s nearly a year in the rear-view mirror by now. He’s presumably pushing Rhett Wiseman up a level since they’re both upper round-drafted corner-only outfielders. Trending Down.

Round 5: Daniel Johnson, OF (CF) Coll Jr. from New Mexico State. Slashed .265/.312/.347 in 62 games in Short A. 42/7 K/BB in 245 ABs, 1HR, 13SBs split between playing CF and RF. Wow; just 7 walks in 245 ABs; that’s not good. As with Neuse and Banks, the slash line isn’t that impressive though Johnson managed better power numbers by showing a bit of gap power (9 doubles, 4 triples). He should move up with his draft class to low-A next year, but (again, as with Neuse and Banks) we need to see some improvement and some patience at the plate. Trending Steady.

Round 6: Tres Barrera, C Coll Jr. from Texas. Slashed .244/.337/.366 in 48 starts behind the dish for Short-A. 22/15 K/BB in 164 ABs, 3HR, 0SB. A solid season for the catcher, who led Auburn’s qualifying players in OPS on the year. An interesting decision may eventually await the team; is Barrera good enough for the team to decide to cut bait on Jakson Reetz? Reetz improved his numbers greatly this year (which we’ll discuss in the 2015 draft class review post), and there’s a straightforward promotion path for Reetz, Raudy Read and for Barrera this year … but it is going to get crowded at the top and soon. Trending Up.

Round 7: Jacob “Jake” Noll, 2B Coll Sr. from FGCU. Hit .318 in 18 games in Auburn and earned a promotion on 8/1/16 to Hagerstown. Slashed .275/.332/.401 across 3 levels in 2016. 26/15 K/BB, 5homers, 3SB in 207 ABs. A good season for a senior sign, who should start at 2B again for Hagerstown in 2017 and look to continue his excellent start to his career. Trending Up.

Round 8: A.J. Bogucki, RHP (starter) Coll Jr. from UNC. 0-6, 8.20 ERA in 10 games (6 starts) for Auburn. 17/14 K/BB in 26 1/3 IP. 1.97whip, 4.53 FIP, .378 BABIP. So clearly a 4-point delta between his ERA and FIP highlights a bit of unluckiness in Bogucki’s numbers this year. Still, nearly 2 baserunners an inning is an awful place to reside. He had two especially bad outings that helped inflate his numbers, but overall its hard to see Bogucki having a guaranteed full-season spot next year. I presume he’s in XST and then re-trying short-A in 2017. Trending Down.

Round 9: Joey Harris, C Coll Sr. From Gonzaga. Slashed .301/.414/.329 in 26 games catching roughly every third day in the GCL. 15/9 K/BB, zero HR, 1SB in 73ABs. He had a nice average .. but non-existent power even despite being a 22yr old in a rookie league. Harris was a cut-rate bonus senior sign and the odds of him making it past next season’s draft seem slim. Trending Down.

Round 10: Paul Panaccione, SS/Util Coll Sr. from Grand Canyon U. Slashed just .205/.254/.250 in 50 games serving as a utility backup for Auburn. 20/9 K/BB, zero homers, 1 SB in 176ABs. There doesn’t seem to be any cinderella stories with the senior signs this year; like Harris above, Panaccione seems like he’s a quick release once the 2017 class starts signing. Trending Down.

Round 11: Armond Upshaw, OF (CF) J2 from Pensacola State CC. Slashed .325/.391/.400 in 13 games (40 ABs) for the GCL. He missed a couple of weeks in July then did not play after August 1st. He had a promising start for sure and, assuming there’s not a serious, long-term injury he should make sense to perhaps compete for a spot at Low-A Hagerstown in 2017. It’s too small sample size to really pass too much judgement, so we’ll go with Trending Steady.

Round 12: Hayden Howard, LHP (reliever) Coll Jr. from Texas Tech. 0-2 with a 5.06 ERA in 11 games for Short-A. 12/9 K/BB in 21 1/3 innings, 1.73 whip, 4.03FIP, .365 babip. Not the best start from Howard, who was one of the last drafted players to sign and start his career. He mostly pitched 2-3 inning relief stints but didn’t show much in the way of swing-and-miss stuff. His BABIP shows he was a bit unlucky, and at the risk of over-reacting to 21 innings, I’d say he’s already on a short leash. He’ll be competing for a bullpen spot in Hagerstown next year. Trending Down.

Round 13: Conner Simonetti, 1B Coll Jr. from Kent State. Slashed .280/.333/.446 for the GCL Nats. 54/13 K/BB ratio, 6 homers, 0 ABs playing 1B for the rookie league squad. A college junior should have at least made the Short-A team; i’m guessing Simonetti was pushed to the GCL thanks to a numbers game. 54 strikeouts in 42 games played against guys who were 1-2 years younger is the biggest concern i’d have here; I would like to have seen more contact. Just based on where he played in 2017, i’m going to say Trending Down.

Round 14: Kyle Simonds, RHP (reliever) Coll Sr. from Texas A&M: 0-3 with a 2.51 ERA in 13 games (3 starts) for Auburn. 27/8 K/BB in 32 1/3 innings. 1.08 whip, 3.43 fip, .272 BABIP. A nice little season for the senior sign Simonds, who got a few “starts” (which I put in quotes because clearly they were doing tandem starts) but mostly was a 2-3inning middle reliever. Good K/BB ratio, good overall numbers, kept baserunners to a minimum. I think he’s a shoe-in for middle relief in Hagerstown next year. Trending Up.

Round 15: Ryan Williamson, LHP (starter) Coll Jr. from NC State: No Stats in 2016; he had Tommy John surgery on 6/22/16 with Dr. Andrews and spent the season on the GCL D/L. We’ll see him in XST next year to start and then likely with Auburn in 2017. If he recovers, this could be another nice pick for the Nats; he had promising numbers as a weekend starter for NC State this year (7-2, 2.69 ERA in 13 starts) Trending Steady.

Round 16: Phil Morse, RHP (reliever) Coll Sr. from Shenandoah U (by way of McLean HS): 1-0, 7.79 ERA in 19 games as a late-innings reliever for Auburn. 23/13 K/BB ratio in 21 innings, 2.24 whip, 3.37 fip, .508 babip. So, at first glance his ERA and WHIP look awful. But look at his BABIP: above .500! That’s 200 points or more above where it should be, and his FIP indicates it. So, hopefully the Nats officials also see this vast discrepancy and give him another shot. It looks like he was used as an 8th/9th inning guy because of stuff, so in short outings one string of hits can really inflate your stats. I think he gets another look in the Hagerstown bullpen next year. Trending Steady.

Round 17: Tyler Beckwith, MIF Coll Sr. from URichmond; slashed .253/.330/.331 across 45 games across two levels. 44/16 K/BB ratio, 1HR, 5SB in 166 ABs. Beckwith spent most of the season in the GCL despite being a college senior sign, then interestingly was promoted to Hagerstown to finish out the season. He split time evenly between 2B, SS (his drafted position) and 3B. In the GCL, his OBP was higher than his slugging, indicating very little power potential here. He will compete for a full season job but already seems behind higher-drafted players from 2016 (Neuse, Noll) plus some aging IFAs from the D.R., plus some hangers on from prior drafts. He could be a release candidate soon after the 2017 class is drafted. Trending Down.

Round 18: Ben Braymer, LHP (Starter) Coll Jr. from Auburn: 0-2 with a 4.12 ERA in 8 games (2 starts). 24/13 K/BB in 19 2/3rds innings, 1.32whip, 3.02 fip, .289 babip. Braymer was used as a notional “starter” despite not getting the official starts; he was kept on a starter’s regime for the GCL but was shut down in early August (unsure if injury or just innings limits). He was a Junior out of Auburn, where he was a highly regarded Juco transfer and was used as a swingman. I’d like to see how he’d fare against like-aged players; more than a K/inning but against rookie league guys. I’m hoping he competes for at least the Hagerstown rotation next year. Trending Steady.

Round 19: Jarrett Gonzales, C from Madison HS in San Antonio; did not sign, apparently honored his college commitment. At the time of the draft, I had him committed to Grayson Junior College in Denison, North Texas. However, perfectgame.org now has him committed to Dallas Baptist University. He is cousins w/ Garrett (our 32nd round pick, see below) and nephew of Nats scout Jimmy Gonzalez. Initially I thought this might have been a “favor pick,” but you don’t generally blow 19th round picks (35th round? yes). The fact that he’s going to a powerhouse baseball program lends a bit more credence to his drafting in this spot.

Round 20: Jake Barnett, LHP (starter) Coll Jr from Lewis-Clark State (Idaho). 0-0, 1.80 ERA in 2 games and just 5IP for the GCL. Barnett signed on 6/20, reported to Florida on 6/24, pitched on 6/25 and then again on 7/1 … and then didn’t pitch again. There’s no D/L assignment. I guess we have to say he’s Trending Steady until we find out his fate next spring.

Round 21: Jacob Howell RHP (reliever) Coll Jr. from Delta State (Miss.). Posted a 2-1 record with a 3.49 ERA across 28.1 innings and three levels. Looking just at his time in Hagerstown; 4.57 ERA, 15/7 K/BB in 21 2/3 innings. 1.25 WHIP, 3.59 FIP, .279 Babip. Howell quickly moved from the GCL through Auburn to live in Hagerstown for most of the year, becoming the first 2016 draftee to matriculate to full-season ball. Not bad for a 21st rounder from a small school. His FIP indicates that his numbers are better, and his season was cut short a month with injury. I’d suspect he’ll start again in Hagerstown in 2017 (unless his injury was serious) and move on up from there. Good first pro season. Trending Up.

Round 22: Sterling Sharp, RHP (starter) Coll Jr. Drury (Mo.). Posted a 3-0 record with a 3.24 ERA in 11 games (7 “starts”) in the GCL before getting an end-of-season promotion to Auburn. 35/6 K/BB in 41 2/3 innings in GCL. 1.27whip, 2.85 fip, .354 babip. Nice looking numbers, much better than his college numbers this year, but done against younger competition even given the fact that he went to a smaller school. His one Auburn start was solid and efficient; 5 innings, 2 runs on 69 pitches. I like what I see, but will repeat the typical age-related caveat for all college kids in the GCL. We’ll know more when he hits a Short-A or Full-season league. Trending Up.

Round 23: Michael Rishwain, RHP (reliever) Col Sr. Westmont (Calif.); was 1-0 with a 3.63 ERA in 13 relief appearances in the GCL. 14/5 K/BB in 17 1/3 innings. 1.90 whip, 2.58fip, .400 babip. His usage was odd; he only pitched about every 5th day despite not being a “starter” in the GCL, and had several “gaps” of more than a week between appearances. He also gave up a gazillion hits; 28 in his 17 innings to go along with a few walks, hence the inflated WHIP. If they were holding him back to manage his innings that is one thing; if he was only getting brief looks because every time he got on the mound 2 guys got on base, then he may not be long for the season. I see him as a long-shot to make a full-season bullpen and he may be a mid-season 2017 release. Trending Down.

Round 24: Joseph Baltrip RHP (reliever) J2 from Wharton County (Texas) JC; went 2-1 with a 1.38 ERA in 16 relief appearances in the GCL. 17/23 K/BB in 26IP. 1.46whip, 5.40 fip, .194 BABIP. Well, I loved the ERA until I saw the K/BB ratio; he walked 23 guys in 26 innings. Look at the delta between his ERA and FIP. Despite being a J2 guy, he was 21 at the point of drafting so he’s the same age as a typical College Junior. Clearly he’s got some control issues to work on. As with previous college RHP relievers who were in the GCL all year, results need to be shown in like-age leagues and soon. Trending Down.

Round 25: Branden Boggetto, SS Col Sr. Southeast Missouri State. Slashed .280/.328/.411 in 32 games in the GCL. 13/6 K/BB ratio, 3 homers, 2 SBs in 107 ABs. Drafted as a SS, he played mostly 2B in the GCL this season. Solid enough numbers for Boggetto, but (and I feel like a broken record) he’s 22. I’m guessing he has a shot at a utility position for a team next season, but the roster’s crowded. Trending Down.

Round 26: Jack Sundberg OF (corner) Col Sr. Connecticut. Slashed .256/.346/.340 while earning two promotions and ending the season in Hagerstown. 33/22 K/BB ratio, 1 homer, 12SB in his three stops. You cannot complain about a 26th rounder who earned two promotions, even if the jump from Short-A to Low-A seemed odd based on his stat line in Auburn. He played mostly LF, where you hope for a bit more power. He did feature at CF a bit, so perhaps it was a positional thing. A great first pro season. Trending Up.

Round 27: Jeremy McDonald, LHP (starter/reliever) Col Sr. California Baptist. Went 2-1 with a 3.42 ERA in 11 appearances in the GCL. 27/5 K/BB ratio, 1.22 whip, 1.85 fip, .338 BABIP. Yes he’s old for the level (he turned 23 just after the season ended), but clearly he’s got some command. Nearly a 6-1 K-BB ratio is great. I’m slightly surprised he didn’t get bumped up to one of the A-ball levels, but (like a few before him) he seemed to be on a starters schedule all season. He generally went every 5th or 6th day even though he was only throwing 2-3 innings at a time. I can see him competing for rotations in Low- or Short-A next year. Trending Up.

Round 28: Jonathan “Jonny” Reid, LHP (starter/reliever) Col Jr. Azusa Pacific (Calif.). Went 3-1 with a 2.50 ERA across two levels, ending the year in Auburn. 24/7 K/BB, 0.94 whip, 4.41 fip (in Auburn), .281 babip (in Auburn). Reid quickly proved to be unhittable in the GCL (8 hits in 15 2/3 innings) and got jumped to Auburn after a month. There he pitched on a starter’s rotation, going every 5th day or so for 2-3 inning stints and finished with a 3.10 ERA in 7 outings. He should compete nicely for a full-season rotation job or at least have a look at being a longer-man out of the pen. Trending Up.

Round 29: Sam Held RHP (starter/reliever) Col Sr. Nevada. Went 1-2 with a 1.86 ERA across three levels, ending the year in Hagerstown. 22/8 K/BB ratio, 1.14whip combined for the year. Like a couple guys before him. Held quickly showed he was too good for the GCL and got jumped to Auburn after three weeks. There, he held his own for a month of tandem starter appearances before finishing the last few weeks in Hagerstown. He more than held his own once he got to full-season ball and should at least start there in 2017. Trending Up.

Round 30: Tristan Clarke, OF J2 Eastern Oklahoma State JC. Did not sign, honored his commitment out of JuCo to attend the University of New Orleans.

Round 31: C.J. Picerni, C Col Sr. New York. Had just 8 ABs for the GCL, and it took 5 weeks for him to even get an appearance. No idea what to think here; was he hurt? Given his draft round and his lack of playing time, you can only assume he’s a short-timer until we get more information. Trending Down.

Round 32: Garrett Gonzales, 3B HS San Antonio HS in Texas. Did not sign, honored his college commitment to Incarnate Word. As noted above, he is cousins w/ Jarrett (our 19th round pick). This seems like a “favor pick” for sure; he’s reportedly the son of a Nats area scout.

Round 33: Ryan Wetzel SS Heritage Christian Academy in Overland Park, Kansas. Did not sign, honored his college commitment to Pitt State. The son of a special assistant to the GM for the Nationals, so definitely another “favor pick.”

Round 34: Morgan Cooper, RHP (starter) Col Jr. Texas. Did not sign, decided to return for his senior year (technically his redshirt junior year) at Texas. He had Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss the whole 2015 season. In 2016 he was a mid-week starter for Texas, so likely he wanted to return to Texas to improve his draft standing for 2017. Makes sense. If he can produce as a weekend starter in the Big12 two years removed from surgery he’ll be looking at a decent bonus next year.

Round 35: Tristan Bayless LHP (starter) Hutto (Texas) HS. Did not sign, honoring his commitment to McLennan Community College. Bayless had a nice season on the mound for his prep team but was not a heavily scouted or recruited player apparently. PerfectGame had very little on him and only some deep googling returned his Juco commitment.

Round 36: Jordan McFarland OF Waterloo (Ill.) HS. Did not sign, honoring his commitment to Arkansas. McFarland was a big-time player; a 2nd-team PerfectGame All American and this may have been the Nats planting a seed for a pick three years from now.

Round 37; Cory Voss C J2 McLennan (Texas) CC. Did not sign, honoring his planned transfer to U of Arizona for 2017. Voss played his freshman year at New Mexico, went JuCo sophomore year and then was playing in the Cape this past summer. He joins a very good recruiting class for Arizona and will be back in next year’s draft.

Round 38: Noah Murdock RHP (starter) Colonial Heights (Va.) HS. Did not sign, will honor his commitment to UVA. Murdock was one of the players I was tracking all spring and once he passed out of the top 10 rounds it was clear he’d go to school. He will help augment a UVA rotation that lost its ace and may be struggling for starters in 2017.

Round 39: Matt Mervis 1B Georgetown Prep HS, North Bethesda, Md. Did not sign, will honor his commitment to Duke. Another local kid drafted; Mervis was no favor pick. He was highly ranked (the #1 prep player in Maryland according to one source Prep Baseball) but clearly going to Duke is a better alternative than a minimum bonus at this spot.

Round 40: Sean Cook RHP (starter) Whitman HS, Bethesda, Md. Did not sign, will attend Maryland and “attempt to walk-on.” Definitely seems like a “favor” draft pick to someone, in that Cook was not on anyone’s radar, does not have a perfectgame profile and is not even a guarantee to make Maryland’s team. Perhaps further evidence that the MLB draft is still 8-10 rounds too long.

So far, the key names out of this draft have done decently. I’m worried about Banks and (to a lesser extent) Neuse. Its great to see 20th+ round guys like Reid and (especially) Held produce and earn promotions; that’s a feather in the cap of the scouting department for those finds. Its just a half a season of course, but plenty of guys are on course or impressing out of this class.

We’ve clearly seen some middle relief issues lately, despite nearly sweeping a 4-game set in Atlanta this past weekend. And one of the issues we’ve been continually discussing is our left-handed relief options.

We traded Felipe Rivero. Oliver Perez has a 5.61 ERA. Sammy Solis just had an MRI on his left shoulder. Matt Grace has nice looking AAA numbers, but got shellacked last year (2.00 whip in 26 innings) during a brief call-up. Nick Lee was so ineffective this year that he passed completely through waivers when we DFA’d him off the 40-man. We just paid cash for twice-TJ survivor and ex Nat Sean Burnett, whose AAA numbers look good but is now on his fourth organization of 2016.

Do we have a LOOGY problem?

Well, maybe.

I constantly have to remind myself of this sentence: “You don’t have to be left-handed in order to get lefties out.” That and this sentence: “If your lefty splits are good … then you’re still a good LOOGY option.”

Here’s the 2016 versus lefty splits for every reliever on our 40-man, RHP or LHP. And then lets add in some of the call-up candidates just for fun… (all numbers as of 8/21/16’s Atlanta game via baseball-reference.com):

Right Handed reliever options

Melancon: .202/.253/.274 for an .527 OPS; as you’d expect, an elite closer gets both lefties and righties out.

Treinen: .211/.357/.351 for an .708 OPS. Not bad.

Kelley: .250/.294/.609 for an .903 OPS. Not good.

Petit: .261/.327/.511 for an .838 OPS. Again, not really that good, but then again that’s not what we’re asking him to do generally.

Belisle: .150/.203/.267 for an .470 OPS. Wow; that’s better than any of our lefties.

Glover: minimal stats in MLB; for 2016 he had a .161 BAA in AAA, .250 in AA and .143 in High-A for lefty splits (which are kind of hard to come by at milb.com). That looks promising, but he seems to be more effective against righties.

Left Handed reliever options

Perez: .217/.321/.377 for an .698 OPS. Its his rightly split that’s killing him.

Solis: .200/.279/.273 for an .551 OPS. Awesome … if we can get him back healthy.

Sean Burnett: Again, minor league splits are harder to come by, but Burnett had a .150 BAA against in 12 IP in his longest AAA stint of the year.

Bryan Harper: .161 BAA in AAA this year, even better .091 while in AA. And it’d be cool to have him on a roster with his brother. But he’s on the D/L right now.

Matt Grace: .207 BAA in AAA this year … but as noted above he struggled in his 2015 audition.

Rivero, by the way, has this for a lefty split in 2016: .325/.424/.429 for an .852 OPS. A .325 BAA; no wonder they were willing to part with him. He was a lefty who couldn’t get lefties out.

What if we thought outside the box a bit?

Reynaldo Lopez: .180/.250/.340 for an .590 OPS. Interesting; we’ve already talked at length about Lopez being a fire-baller out of the pen for a post-season team and his lefty splits are good.

Lucas Gioilto: .269/.406/.462 for an .868 OPS; not nearly as impressive.

Aaron Laffey: just a .254 BAA in AAA this year in a swing-man role.

Nick Lee: the aforementioned struggling lefty is the only other lefty in the minors above High-A; he’s got a decent .214 BAA against lefties in AA … but his overall ERA/Whip is ugly; 4.73 and 1.77,

I didn’t go to High-A, where we have a couple of lefty prospects but they’re no where near consideration for a call-up.

So, we need Solis back; he’s the closest thing we have to a matchup lefty who we can count on. But clearly Belisle’s numbers make him a matchup option too, despite his being a rightly. It reminds me of when we had Tyler Clippard, who always had stellar lefty splits. Perez’s split line isn’t great; I feel like we should be pushing him almost all the way to the mop-up/Petit role right now.

Are you concerned though? On a whole, the Nats bullpen has been one of the best in all of baseball. Are the falterings lately just due to a too many innings thanks to a couple of bad starter outings?

Clearly the team is trusting Lopez more than Giolito; are all the pundits wrong? Photo via wp.com/Mitchell Layton getty images

So, I’ll start off by saying this is absolutely a “short sample size” post. Reynaldo Lopez now has a grand total of four MLB starts (and just 4 AAA starts) and uber prospect Lucas Giolito himself now has the same number of total starts above AA as Lopez (3 in MLB, 5 for Syracuse). But after last night’s dominant performance in Atlanta (7ip, 4 hits, 11 Ks and 1 walk in 101 pitches), I’ll ask the question that a lot of commenters have already been saying here: are we looking at the wrong guy as the next Ace in waiting from our farm system?

Here’s what’s striking me about Lopez; check out his Pitch FX data from last night’s start. He threw 68 fastballs with an *average* velocity of 97.6mph, peaking at 99.5mph. Yes he tired a bit in the last couple of innings, but (per the graph of his pitch velocity at the BrooksBaseball link) he only “slowed” to the 96-97 range … his overall heat earlier in the game kept his average well into the 97mph range. That’s a very, very impressive velocity neighborhood, one where only two or three starters are living right now (amongst qualified starters … only Noah Snydergaard has kept a higher average fastball velocity this year than 97.6). But I also watched him absolutely blow balls by hitters; the most impressive of which was a 98mph fastball right by Atlanta’s best hitter Freddie Freeman to get a punch-out.

We’re not seeing that kind of velocity out of Giolito. And we didn’t see this kind of performance either.

Literally every scouting analyst out there thinks Giolito is “the best pitching prospect in the game.” Now, they’re not exactly light on Lopez; Lopez is routinely in the top 50 of all prospects in the minors, and generally listed #2 behind Giolito and Trea Turner on the 2016 lists. So it isn’t as if nobody knows who Lopez is. But results on the field at the MLB level in 2016 are hard to beat when it comes to doing comparisons.

Yes Atlanta is an awful team so perhaps over-reacting to 11 Ks is something to temper. And both guys are clearly up-and-down (Lopez’ last AAA start was 5 runs in 6ip; Giolito’s last AAA start was 10Ks and 1 run in 7ip). Two of Giolito’s three MLB starts were against the defending NL champ Mets (not exactly a pushover team offensively) while two of Lopez’s four MLB starts were against the trying-to-lose Mets (who might be starting one out-field player who would start on most other teams right now).

But what are you guys thinking? I mean, clearly to me Lopez is staying in the rotation until he falters, so it may be a moot point for Giolito anyway (who is quickly running out of innings in 2016; he’s sitting at 117 1/3 right now, which is almost precisely what he threw in 2015, so factoring in a 20% increase he may only have 4 more starts in him). Does Lopez have innings limit concerns too? He’s never even thrown 100 innings and is already well past that in 2016…). In fact, are we looking at an imminent shutdown of *both* prospects in the next couple of weeks?

I know how some of you are going to react to this post … cough cough MartyC and forensicane cough cough. But how about the rest of you? Is this heresy? Is this a changing of the guard-type opinion? Or is this just all SSS-driven nonsense that’ll be thrown out the window when Lopez gets pounded the next time he faces a half-way decent offensive lineup?

There were a TON of cascading moves announced today, with multiple guys moving up in our system. Starting at the bottom:

GCL: 2016 draftees and RHPs Jacob Howell and Phil Morse got bumped to Auburn after one appearance each in the GCL.

Auburn then sent Angelo La Bruna, Robbie Dickey and Randy Encarnacion (who probably should have been higher honestly) to Hagerstown. This will be Dickey’s third shot at Low-A but he was clearly not touchable in Short-A (8ip, 1H 11Ks in 3 outings so far this year).

Hagerstown then bumped up two great hitting prospects Max Schrock, Victor Robles and Trey Lambert to Potomac. Robles and Schrock were both all-stars and both were flatly out-hitting Low-A. Lambert has quietly been toiling in the bullpen and had a 27/2 K/BB ratio this year. I tell you, i’m really starting to get excited about Robles, and I think Schrock is turning into a draft day steal.

Potomac then bumped up Drew Ward, Andrew Stevenson, Ryan Brinley and Boone Whiting to AA. Three of these four were all-stars this year, and Whiting was in AAA all of last year so was wasting his efforts in high-A. Kudos for Ward to get the promotion and get his prospect career back on track, and even more kudos for Stevenson to earn such a quick promotion to AA.

Harrisburg then moved up Chris Bostick, Zack Collier and suddenly dominant starter Reynaldo Lopez to Syracuse (they also put Wander Suero on the TIL list to account for the four promotions). How about the season Lopez is having? As noted in the comments, he’s leading AA in K/9 while maintaining a 3+ K/BB ratio.

Syracuse’s corresponding moves were mostly bloodshed: they released Scott Sizemore, Tony Campana and RHP Juan Gutierrez to make room. They also promoted Rafael Martin for at least the day. Lopez isn’t going to be pitching out of the bullpen though, so I’d imagine that Jared Long will get demoted to fill the vacated spot in AA.

Why is there an extra spot in AA’s rotation?

Because Lucas Giolito got called up! Mid Monday the announcement came out; he’s making the start on Tuesday. Get your DVRs ready! I won’t go into Giolito too much; we all know what he’s supposed to be. Question is; will he live up to the hype?

(if you want to see all the transactions organized by league, here’s the links I use):

And, for good measure, here’s every other Nats prospect still active in our system who hasn’t exhausted their rookie eligibility and who has ever appeared on a Nats Prospect list, and where they’re starting (organized by level highest to lowest).

Discussion: only one surprise from the pre-Spring Training prediction for this team: Matt Belisle makes the team ahead of Trevor Gott. Otherwise everyone is in the roles they were acquired to hold. There was some question about whether Blake Treinen would get optioned early in the spring, but not now. The order of the starters wasn’t right: Ross is being treated like the 4th starter and Roark the 3rd, I guess.

It probably wasn’t too hard to predict 12 out of the 13 spots in the MLB roster, so we won’t pat ourselves on the back too much. Lets talk minors.

Discussion: No surprises in the Rotation: we predicted 7 guys in the AAA rotation competition and ended up with the 5 we predicted, a 6th as the swing-man/spot starter and the 7th (Arroyo) on the D/L for the time being.

The bullpen has some surprises: Gott as previously mentioned was projected in the majors; the other 6 bullpen members were in the 10 projected guys competing for the AAA spots. Two guys got pushed to AA. Brady starts on the D/L. Both my release candidates did in fact get released, along with off-season MLFA Velasquez. The real surprise making the AAA team was Masset.

Burnett opted out when he didn’t make the MLB team, but it wasn’t a stretch to predict that happening.

No real projection surprises though, all in all. Nobody who we projected to start in AA got moved up; only a couple guys who got moved down (Bacus and de los Santos). I’m slightly surprised de los Santos is in AA and it makes me question even more his 40-man add and usage last year (3 days of service time and now two options blown).

The big surprise here is that Austen Williams made the AA team; I had him at High-A. Perhaps it isn’t THAT big of a surprise given how well he pitched last year, but it does seem to go away from the Nats’ proclivities to start guys at their prior season’s level and have them “earn” early to mid-season promotions. He joins a pretty high powered duo of Giolito and Lopez. Gorski was an off-season MLFA brought in for competition and he didn’t win. Only one of my four release candidates was in fact released (Dupra): the other three got dumped to XLS or High-A, which is good for them but not good for the massive log-jam of recently drafted college arms who need spots in A-ball.

In the bullpen, we’ve talked before about the surprising release of Jake Walsh. There’s 5 guys stuck in XST limbo for now, a couple of which are release candidates. One name that popped out of the blue is Robert Fish, who signed an under-the radar MLFA deal in mid February and who apparently hasn’t pitched professionally in two full seasons. He must have had a pretty good spring.

Discussion: My High-A predictions show just how out of whack my “reading the stat lines” predictions can be, especially for starters.

In the Rotation, AWilliams earned a jump to AA. I thought Dickson and Van Orden were solid rotation candidates; instead they got released. Lastly, I thought both Estevez and Reyes were repeating Hagerstown; Estevez missed the whole season and Reyes posted a 4.82 ERA there last year. Instead they’re opening day starters for Potomac. Not even close here.

In the Bullpen, we got Johanssen, Orlan, Glover, Brinley, Sylvestre and Turnbull right (not too bad prediction wise), though the last couple guys are on the D/L and still may be release candidates. Who did we miss on? Robinson was an off-season MLFA (who signs MLFAs for high-A?), and Sanchez I had projected to repeat after posting a 4.86 in Hagerstown last year.

From a starter standpoint, we did a pretty good job projecting who would be in Hagerstown’s rotation. Four of the Six projected candidates “seem” like they’re in the rotation (full disclosure, we’re kind of guessing who these teams are using as starters until we see the first turn through the rotation). The misses? LReyes, who surprisingly is in High-A, and Guilbeau, who I thought would be on the team but in a relief role.

In the bullpen; we missed on Sanchez (who made High-A), Borne and Gunter (both of whom are in XST for now). In their place are a slew of guys who I was projecting to be elsewhere. I thought both VanVossen and DeRosier were release candidates after poor 2015 seasons in Short-A; instead they’re in the opening day bullpen. I had LTorres in the Short-A bullpen after mostly failing as a short-A starter.

Lastly there’s Bach and RPena; I had both projected in Potomac. I thought Bach had a perfectly good Low-A season last year and has nothing yet to prove in the Sally League. Pena returns to Hagerstown for the third time; he pitched in Low-A in 2013 and 2014. You have to think this is a planned short stint before he returns to at least High-A.

No real surprises in the “Missing/XST” crew: Dickey is the biggest profile name here but it seems to me he was injured last year so its hard to pass judgement on his stats anywhere. Borne‘s numbers were basically identical to the likes of Hearn and Guilbeau’s; he missed out in the 2016 competition. Gunter might make sense as a mid-season promotion to cover for injury. Ramos was hurt most of the year last year.

In the “release candidate” section, I was clearly wrong about Estevez. DWilliams and Boghosian have already indeed been released. And both Mooney/Pirro missed out on the full-season roster and are in XST limbo.

Let the games begin! Are there surprises for you guys in these rosters?

Scherzer leads the MLB rotation for a second year. Photo via sportingnews.com

(Editor note: I was out of the country for the last week; good timing in terms of missing the snow, but not so much for trying to get on a flight back to DC. Never got one actually; had to settle for a flight to JFK last night and a train ride ride down).

Now that we’re through all the 2015 Pitching staff review series, level by level, here’s a summary projection of what the pitching staffs may look like for 2016. These projections are based on the 7 deep dive rotation reviews but are all put in one place. Since player movement occurs daily, I may have missed one or two MLFA signings but these should be up-to-date as of the time of publishing.

Quick Discussion: This assumes no more rotation acquisitions; if one occurs, bump Roark to long-man with Treinen then getting dumped to AAA save for injury (See next section for the Arroyo discussion). It looks like the team can’t move Papelbon for anything of value and refuses to eat $11M and instead moved Storen for something we do value (a CF). I know they’re still connected to random starters here and there, which continues my amazement in their lack of trust of Roark as an effective 5th starter (I guess his 50 innings in 2013 and 200 awesome innings in 2014 just weren’t convincing enough). Honestly if they don’t trust Roark, then just call up Giolito. This is their last season with Strasburg and one of their last with Harper, so “saving” Giolito at this “win now” point seems dumb. We’ll see.

Quick Discussion: Both Hill and Davis took outright assignments to AAA to stick with the team after being DFA’d in the last few weeks: this could lead to some downstream moves in spring training (specifically someone like McGregor getting squeezed in a numbers game). We have slightly overloaded the bullpen assuming that there’s some injuries to come. Only a few “veteran MLFA” types listed here, a good sign for the system and its ability to generate upper-level minor league talent, but seemingly every other day we hear about more such signings, probably for competition purposes and/or to fulfil what seems to be the annual ritual of giving guys a few weeks of meal money to throw innings in spring training for one last shot at a roster spot.

The very recent signing of Bronson Arroyo is an interesting one; he’ll be 40, coming off of TJ and has shown himself to be effective even despite a lack of velocity even deep into his 30s. Is he a competitor to Roark for the 5th starter spot? Is this a favor to Dusty Baker? For now, i’m putting him as AAA depth but have to think he’s got an opt-out if he doesn’t make the MLB team so he’s likely to be either the 5th starter or a FA come 4/1/16.

Post-publish edit: thanks to JohnC, I totally forgot about our early off-season MLFA signing of Sean Burnett, our old favorite loogy (who also happens to throw the ball right handed while shagging flies in the OF). If he doesn’t have an opt-out, I’ll project him as a Syracuse loogy but perhaps behind Solis and Grace thanks to his lack of 40-man status. I hope he’s still got it after two TJs.

Quick Discussion: here’s where we start to see some log jamming going on; we already have 6 good candidates for the AA rotation (and that was before the recently announced Gorski signing), 10 for the bullpen (some of which already have been promoted to AAA in 2015) and another 4 guys who could still slot in somewhere who i’ve called “release candidates” because of the numbers game. That’s 20+ guys for 12-13 slots. Do they get pushed down and cause cascading High-A fall out (where the story is the same?) or do we see some wholesale shredding of contracts this coming spring training? Do you move UP guys like Giolito, Harper instead and cut AAA veteran MLFAs?

Quick Discussion: Again, I see this as an overloaded squad; 6 starters, 10 relievers. Perhaps some AA guys drop down, perhaps there’s guys listed here to are more likely release candidates than sure things (Napoli? Amlung? Johanssen even?). We may eventually get our answer; the team just released Cooper despite my thinking he was more or less a lock for the Potomac bullpen in 2016. I’m really curious to see what a couple of the starters here do this year in particular: Austen Williams and Erick Fedde. We talked earlier about Fedde perhaps starting the season in Hagerstown … but as we’re about to see, there’s just so many guys for a couple of slots.

Quick Discussion: 6 projected starters, another 8 for the bullpen, and another 6 relievers who … well, i’m not sure where you put them. You can’t have 20 pitchers in XST can you? Well, maybe you can and they can catch on with the short-season squads … but look at who is already projected for Short-A below. In the comments section of the Short-A post a few weeks back, we talked about the four lefty college starters who were drafted and in the Auburn rotation (Hearn, Crownover, Guilbeau and Borne); all had more or less the same pro numbers in Auburn; who stays in the rotation moving up? Who goes to the pen? There were already 4 guys who made sense to project to the Hagerstown rotation; where are 4 more college lefties going to go? Its almost like the team needs an entire additional low-A team to staff.

Quick Discussion: I’ve already got nearly a full squad of arms for short-A as it is, and we havn’t accounted for any 2016 draftees nor potential dropdowns from Hagerstown. I just feel like there’s going to be some whole sale releases this spring. Either that or Rizzo is going to draft nothing but bats in 2016.

Quick discussion: practically nobody in the domestic system right now projects to repeat the Rookie league, which means that a) we should expect a ton of guys to make their way from the DSL and/or b) we should expect more 2016 draftees to start here. Perhaps I should have done a review of the DSL guys to make predictions on who earned their way off the island.

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Guys who really impressed me in 2015and to watch out for in 2016. Kind of my own version of Luke’s “watch list” but I was definitely struck by several guys while doing these posts and here’s the list.

Watson was a big over-slot draftee in 2015 and did not disappoint in his brief GCL debut. Photo bia mychandlerschools.org (his HS)

This is the 7th and last in the 2015 Pitching staff review series, here’s a review of GCL/Rookie league pitching staff for 2015. I generally don’t follow the Dominican Summer League teams, simply because there seems to be so little correlation of success there to success domestically. Other parts of the 2015 series:

For some historical perspective, here’s 2013’s version (featuring Lucas Giolito again), 2012’s version (Lucas Giolito was the feature pitcher) and 2011’s version (Jack McGeary the feature pitcher) of this post specifically for the GCL/Rookie league. Had I done this post for 2014, I would have struggled to find a worthy player to feature but would have settled on Anderson Martinez.

A caveat before starting this post: this is short-season ball, so nobody’s got more than a few dozen innings. The staff leader had 42 innings. So yes this is absolutely going to be some “Small Sample Size” analysis. Which in some cases is unfair to the player (to the good or to the bad). It is what it is. The Nats GCL team basically gets two kinds of players; over-aged college draftees (since we basically only draft college arms) and DSL graduates who may or may not be ready for prime time. So each type of guy may have his own caveats when looking at numbers.

GCL starters. Here’s an overview of the starters used in 2015, starting with the original starters, going all the way to the rehab spot starts.

Carlos Acevedogot the opening day start and was used as a long-man the rest of the way, getting 29.2 IP across 10 appearances. 3.64 ERA, 1.11 whip, 3.61 fip, 20/9 K/BB. Acevedo is an older DR signee, already 21 but only in his 2nd pro season. These were decent enough numbers though and I can see him getting bumped up to Short-A; can’t quite see him making the Low-A bullpen though. Outlook for Next Season: short-A bullpen.

Steven Fuenteswent 3-4 with a 5.22 ERA in 39.2 IP in his first season domestically after excelling as a 17yr old in the DSL last year. 33/15 K/BB ratio but his peripherals were iffy: 1.54 whip, 4.14 fip. His K/9 rate seems promising and he’s young enough that there’s no reason to push him along: I think he repeats the GCL in 2016. Outlook for Next Season: GCL rotation.

Juan Bermudezstruggled with the GCL squad, posting a 6.91 ERA in 14.1 IP and got demoted back to the DSL. There he also struggled and the squad released him in August. Outlook for Next Season: out of the organization.

Maximo Valeroexcelled in the GCL, going 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA across 36.2 IP. 32/7 K/BB and a sub 1.00 whip. He earned a promotion to Short-A by mid August and finished the season there, posting a 2.63 ERA in Short-A with a 15/3 K/BB ratio. He has not yet turned 21 and looks like he could be an excellent IFA signing. I think he makes sense at this point to compete for the Low-A rotation; problem is that there’s just way too many arms already competing for that rotation. I think he could end up as a long-man in Hagerstown and then get pushed to the Short-A rotation in mid June. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation.

Wilber Penahad an ok first domestic season, going 1-6 with a 3.92 ERA, 1.51 whip and 36/12 K/BB in 39 IP. Not great, but not horrible. He won’t turn 21 until after next season, so I can see him repeating the GCL to work on his WHIP. Outlook for Next Season: GCL rotation.

Joan Baezwas tried out in Low-A and Short-A briefly before settling back into the GCL for the majority of the season; there he exceled, posting a 2.13 ERA in 9starts/42IP. 42/19 K/BB. This was his 2nd go-around in the GCL and he improved across the board. He’s a bit of an older IFA signing (he just turned 21 in December, so 2016 will still be his age 21 season), so he makes sense to try out again in Hagerstown in 2016. I’m not sure he’s going to make that rotation though; he may be destined for the bullpen. That being said, the team clearly wants him to stick as a starter. Outlook for Next Season: Low-A long-man/spot starter.

Yorlin Reynosogot one quick start in Auburn before getting demoted back to the GCL to repeat the level; he ended up going 1-3 with a 5.66 ERA, 1.51 whip, 26/14 K/BB ratio in 35 GCL innings as a 19yr old. These are improvements over 2014’s GCL stint, and he’s still young, so I can see the team sticking with him. But he can’t play in Viera forever. 2016 needs to see some improvement; he needs to stick in the Short-A rotation. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation competition/release candidate.

McKenzie Millswent 0-5, 7.27 ERA with 24/28 K/BB in 34.2 ip across two levels. He posted a 4.46 fip, .405 babip while in Short-A then got dropped back to the Rookie league, where he threw 23 IP at a 7.04 ERA clip. Rough season for Mills, who couldn’t make the jump to short-A, then struggled when back in rookie ball. Just way too many walks to be effective, but likely hangs around a bit longer since he can just hang out in XST and try to pick back up on next year’s short season squads again. 2016 may be a make-it or break-it year though. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation competition/release candidate.

Matt DeRosierwent 0-2, 3.58 ERA with 30/7 K/BB in 27IP (7 starts) mostly in the GCL, having gotten dumped out of Auburn after a couple of poor starts. 2.02 fip, .435 babip in Auburn, so perhaps it was a short-sample-size that was unflattering. He needs to put together a nice string of healthy starts somewhere outside of complex ball though. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation competition/release candidate.

Tyler Watsonwent 1-1, 0.00 ERA and 16/4 k/bb in 13ip, 1.81 fip, .226 babip in the GCL. The Nats 2015 34th round over-slot signee did not disappoint. He’s young but he looked dominant in his first pro innings. I’ll bet he stays in XST and debuts next year on the short-A squad. He’s young though; so don’t be surprised if he repeats the GCL entirely to build up innings. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation.

Mick VanVossenwent 0-2, 4.83 ERA across 2 levels. 23/13 K/BB in 31.2 ip, 4.09 fip, .260 babip in GCL (where he spent most of the year). Nothing too special here; struggled when he got to Auburn but only had 6ip there. Needs to show a better K/BB ratio to compete next year. And a college senior in the GCL isn’t going to cut it; he needs to make next year’s short-A bullpen and succeed or he’ll be axed. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A bullpen competition/release candidate.

Rehab Guys:

Ian Dickson had two rehab starts for the GCL: see High-A write-up for more.

Brian Rauhhad one rehab start and a couple other appearances for the GCL: see AA write-up for more.

Short Timer Guys waiting to get assigned to the proper level:

Taylor Guilbeau featured briefly (2 appearances, 1 start) in GCL before rightfully joining the Short-A rotation where he belonged. See Short-A write-up for more.

Taylor Hearnalso featured briefly (2 appearances, 1 start) in GCL before rightfully joining the Short-A rotation where he belonged. See Short-A write-up for more.

GCL Relievers: taking a look at the relief corps. We’ll organize relievers by going by IP from most to least. Anyone with than 10 IP or who was solely doing rehab will get cursory analysis at the end.

Russell Harmeningwent 1-0, 2.86 ERA in the GCL with 16/4 K/BB in 22ip, 3.26 fip, .303 babip. He was a college junior draftee but a young one; he didn’t turn 21 until after the season was over. I’d say he makes sense to slot into the short-A bullpen in 2016. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A bullpen.

Brayan Serratafared well in his first professional innings after a significant layoff since signing in 2012. He had no innings in 2012, 2013 or 2014 (at last as far as milb.com knows). This year in his turning-21 age season he posted a 1.80 ERA in 20 GCL innings (14/8 K/BB). I’m guessing he’s been hurt for a while; now he’s healthy and needs to move up. I’m guessing he does another season in XST and slots into the short-A bullpen. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A bullpen.

Calvin Coppingwas 1-2, 4.76 ERA in the GCL 14/5 K/BB in 17ip, 4.01 fip, .305 babip. So-So numbers for a college guy in the rookie league. As with his fellow middle-of-the-road senior sign pitchers, he needs to show more dominance if he wants a job out of spring 2016. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A bullpen competition/release candidate.

Angher Cespedesposted a 5.14 ERA in 14IP in his first domestic season after being a relatively old DR signing. He’ll turn 22 next year and doesn’t seem likely to do much outside of complex ball; i’ll say he repeats the GCL if the team retains him. Outlook for Next Season: GCL bullpen/release candidate.

Jorge Pantojawas 1-1, 5.84 ERA in the GCL, 11/3 K/BB in 12ip, 2.74fip, .395 babip. Looks like some potential there with a K/inning and a FIP that flatters his ERA. Probably needs more time. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A bullpen competition/release candidate.

Carlos Penasigned as an NDFA and posted a 9.82 ERA in 7 GCL innings. He got hit hard but he did strike out a guy an inning, so perhaps he hangs around the complex for antoher shot. Outlook for Next Season: GCL bullpen

Pedro Avilais a youngster who was an 2014 IFA signing and who *destroyed* the DSL in 2015; 87/17 K/BB in 59.2 innings and was summoned to Viera in Mid August. He threw just one 4-inning outing before the season ended but he looks quite promising. He’s profiling as a starter and seems like a good bet to be the GCL’s opening day starter in 2016. Outlook for Next Season: GCL rotation.

Kida De La Cruzhad three short outings in June and then didn’t appear afterwards, presumably getting hurt but not going on the D/L. A lost season for the 2014 IFA signee, who will turn 22 next year and seems to be far too old for the GCL. Outlook for Next Season: GCL bullpen/release candidate.

Deibi Yrizarrihad just one 2015 GCL appearance, did not retire a batter, and was released. He posted a 9.08 ERA last year in the GCL and I guess the team had seen enough. Seems like a quick hook though for a guy who they kept hanging around the complex for months. Outlook for Next Season: out of baseball.

The following guys threw a handful of rehab innings and are mentioned only to complete the analysis of everyone who appeared in the GCL this year:

Johansen, RPena, DRamos

The following guys threw a handful of innings before getting quickly promoted to the proper level and are mentioned only to complete the analysis of everyone who appeared in the GCL this year:

Feliz, Howell, Pirro, Brinley, Boghosian, ALee, Peterson

Summary

Not too many pure relievers in the GCL; mostly they’re tandem starters each pitching 3-4 innings per rotation turn. And the Nats treatment of the GCL these days seems to basically be finishing school for their DSL stars since they rarely sign anyone from high school. Nonetheless, I project a ton of guys getting bounced from the Short-A bullpen competition so perhaps that’s who will reside in the GCL next year.

For some historical perspective, here’s 2013’s version (featuring Jake Johanssen), 2012’s version (Brett Mooneyham was the feature pitcher) and 2011’s version (Nathan Karns the feature pitcher) of this post specifically for Auburn/Short-A. Had we done this series in 2014, we likely would have featured Reynaldo Lopez, who had a 0.75 ERA in 7 starts and 36 innings.

A caveat before starting this post (and we’ll say this same thing in the GCL post): this is short-season ball, so nobody’s got more than a few dozen innings. So yes this is absolutely going to be some “Small Sample Size” analysis. Which in some cases is unfair to the player (to the good or to the bad). It is what it is.

Auburn starters. The rotation started the season with several “tandem” starter pairs, not quite going to a full A/B starter set but getting relatively close. Here’s an overview of the 12 starters used in 2015, starting with the original starters, going all the way to the rehab spot starts.

Robbie Dickeyhad two bad starts in Hagerstown before getting dumped back to Auburn in time to get the ball on opening day. From there the jury is kind of out: for the entire year: 6.65 ERA, 16/17 k/bb in 23ip (6 starts). He was incredibly wild and then didn’t pitch after 7/25/15, accumulating just 23 IP on the year. Was he hurt? There was no record of a D/L trip, just an assignment back to XST after a while. All in all, a pretty disappointing season for our 2014 4th round pick. Where does he go from here? Is the team just being too impatient with him, yanking him from Hagerstown after just a few innings? Outlook for Next Season: attempting the Low-A rotation again.

Jefry Rodriguezbounced between Short-A and Low-A again this season, starting in Hagerstown but pitching most of the year in Auburn. At the end of the season, he led Auburn in both IP and starts. All told; 4-10 with a 5.42 ERA between the two levels. While he maintained a 2-1 K/BB ratio in Short-A, he was nearly 1/1 in Low-A (27/25 K/BB in 42.2 low-A innings). The team likes him as a starter … but this is the 2nd year in a row he’s posted a 6+ ERA in low-A. He’s still young though (he turned 22 mid-season) so I can see him repeating his 2015 season; in the Low-A rotation. If he struggles again though, I think it may be time to move him to the bullpen and look at converting him to a late-innings reliever. He can definitely strike guys out (67 Ks in 68 Short-A innings against college competition), so perhaps there’s a new stage in his career if he can’t figure out starting. Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation.

Erick Feddethrew 8 effective starts in Auburn, going 4-1, 2.57 ERA in Short-A Auburn with 36/8 in 35ip (8 starts), 2.60 fip, .346 babip. He then got bumped up to Hagerstown where he finished out the season. See Low-A write-up for more. Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation to start.

Matt Crownoverwent 1-4, 3.81 ERA in Short-A with 34/9 K/BB in 49.2 ip (13 app, 10 starts), 3.40 fip, .301 babip. His whip was decent on the year (1.17), mostly due to his great K/BB ratio (4/1). Nothing bad but nothing mind blowing out of Crownover’s numbers in Short-A. Not a bad return for an under-slot ACC lefty starter. I see him competing for the Low-A rotation; there’s no reason not to keep him moving up as a college draftee from the ACC. Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation competition, likely in the pen.

Joan Baezbounced around the system a bit in 2015, getting 5 starts in Auburn to the tune of a 7.13 ERA. See GCL write-up for more.

McKenzie Millsgot hit hard in 4 appearances in Auburn before spending the rest of the season int the GCL. See GCL write-up for more.

Taylor Guilbeauwent 3-3, 3.54 mostly in Short-A after starting briefly in the GCL with 31/9 K/BB in 51 ip (11/10 starts) .2.89 fip, .356 babip. His FIP looks solid based on his competition but he may get bumped to the bullpen to focus on being a lefty reliever thanks to the large number of arms in the system. I put him behind his fellow 2015 draftees Crownover and Hearn in this regard thanks to his senior sign status and low club investment (fairly or otherwise; it is what it is). Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation competition, likely in the pen.

Taylor Hearnwent 1-5, 3.56 in Short-A with a 38/13 K/BB in 43ip (10/10 starts), 3.40 fip, .346 babip. Hearn joined his fellow lefty first 10 round starters in the Auburn rotation a couple of weeks into the short season and was completely effective, averaging nearly a K/inning with decent control. He’s done nothing to jeopardize his advancement for 2016 and should compete for a low-A rotation gig. Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation competition.

Grant Bornewent 1-4, 3.59 in Short-A with 32/7 K/BB in 47.2 ip (15 apps, 5 starts), 2.99 fip, .321 babip. Its amazing how similar Hearn, Crownover, Guilbeau and Borne’s numbers were, each profiling as a command/control lefty starter in Short-A. Outlook for Next season: Low-A rotation competition with the rest of his fellow lefty 2015 draftees.

Mariano Rivera Jr. got 3 starts before it was clear he needed to be pushed to relief; see the reliever’s section.

Matthew DeRosierhad two bad starts in Auburn before getting dumped back to the GCL; see the Rookie league write-up for more.

Maximo Valerohad 4 appearances and one start in Auburn after a late season promotion: see the GCL write-up for more.

Auburn Relievers: taking a look at the relief corps. We’ll organize relievers by going by IP from most to least. Anyone with less than 10 IP will get cursory analysis at the end.

Luis Torreswas Dickey’s “tandem” starter for a while, getting zero “starts” but pitching mostly longer stints usually on the same schedule as Dickey. We saw this with several others and will treat them as “relievers” for the purposes of this post. Season stats: 5-1, 5.66 ERA, 4.54 fip, 1.37 whip, 22/17 K/BB in 35 innings. Torres got bumped up at season’s end to provide a bit of cover in Low-A but didn’t merit the promotion based on his production. In his age 21 season he showed he still has some work to do and regressed badly from his 2014 production in Short-A. Where does he go from here? I think he’s destined to miss out on the Hagerstown bullpen, spend more time in XST and try Short-A again in 2016. Outlook for Next Season: short-A bullpen.

Mariano Rivera Jr, went 1-2, 5.45 ERA in Short-A with 26/3 K/BB in 33IP (19 app, 3 starts). 2.70 FIP, .388 babip. Rivera was tried as a starter and quickly failed, getting moved to the pen, where he was much better. Starter ERA: 13.00. Reliever ERA: 2.63. His seasonal ERA isn’t nearly as bad as it looks thanks to some bad luck; his FIP is good and his K/BB rate looks good as well. He profiles like his father; slight, live arm, good stuff as a reliever. I can see him moving up the ladder as a back-of-the-bullpen reliever. Perhaps a disappointment that a 4th round pick was relegated to the bullpen after just three starts … but could be a quick moving arm on a team that clearly needs them. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen/closer.

Adam Boghosianwent 3-0, 4.28 era across 2 levels with 16/18 k/bb in 27ip, 5.59 fip, .162 babip in short-A. Anytime you have more walks than strike-outs, its a bad thing. And he posted a mediocre ERA despite an unbelievably low babip; his numbers are likely even worse with a longer sample size. Another senior sign that may get the axe once full-season rosters get set next spring. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen/release candidate.

Cody Gunterwent 1-0 4.15 ERA, 23/8 K/BB in 21.2 IP for Short-A Auburn, 3.84 fip, .259 babip. Gunter was drafted as a 3B and after two non-descript seasons in Auburn converted to the mound. So far, results look promising; he maintained a K/inning ratio with good control and could be better based on the ERA-FIP delta. I see him getting pushed to the Low-A bullpen in 2016. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen.

Kevin Mooney, was 1-0, 5.40 ERA in Short-A with a 15/13 K/bb in 21.2 innings, 4.95 fip, .333 babip. Not a great debut for the local kid Mooney, who was last seen blowing both super-regional games that enabled UVA to surprisingly make its way to the CWS (where even more surprisingly they ended up winning). Far, far too many walks given how many punch-outs he had, his FIP was still way up there even given a BABIP not really that out of line. Needs to step it up if he wants a full-season job. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen competition/release candidate.

Tommy Petersonwas 0-0, 2.66 in Auburn with 13/4 K/BB in 20 relief innings, 2.83 fip, .318 babip as part time closer. Not too many innings to judge on here; looks like a good option for the Hagerstown 2016 bullpen. He was one of the few Auburn hurlers from the 2015 class to get the bump up to low-A in 2015. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen competition.

Connor Overtonwent 1-1 with a 3.72 ERA (13/5 K/BB in 19.1 IP) after getting cut loose from Miami’s short-A squad and quickly getting snapped up last July. He’s an oddity; a 22-yr old MLFA already making the rounds of the lower minors. He briefly got called up to AAA at season’s end but is currently un-attached. With Washington’s glut of arms, i’m not sure he did enough to make the team think he was worth keeping on for a full-season spot and I think the Richmond product goes elsewhere (Atlee HS in Mechanicsburg and then ODU in Norfolk). Outlook for Next Season: in another organization.

Matt Pirrowas 0-0 3.71 ERA across two levels, ending in Short-A. 14/11 k/bb in 17ip, 4.52 fip, .372 babip in short-A. Not great numbers; too many walks, but his ERA/FIP likely the result of a bit of unlucky babip. In a battle to stay employed though going into next year by virtue of his senior sign status. Outlook for Next Season: low-A bullpen/release candidate.

John Felizdidn’t get a ton of innings in 2015: throwing just 17.1 across both short-season squads. In Auburn he had a 4.38 ERA in 12 innings and didn’t pitch after July 28th (but didn’t go on the D/L). He may have been hurt and just not officially gone on a D/L. More or less a lost season for Feliz, who just turned 22, was an old IFA and has yet to perform outside of complex ball. He may not get too many more chances; I see him getting one more shot at Short-A before getting cut loose. Outlook for Next Season: short-A bullpen/release candidate.

Ryan Brinleywas unhittable in 10 innings in the NY Penn league and was bumped up; see the Low-A write-up for more.

Other Relievers who had less than 10 IP in 2015

Jose Moralesgot blasted in two Low-A starts after three quick relief appearances (8ip total) in Auburn, then spent the rest of the year on the D/L. See Low-A write-up for more.

Andrew Leestruck out 12 guys in 8 innings in the NY Penn and was bumped up. See Low-A write-up for more.

Koda Gloverstruck out 11 guys in 6 innings in the NY Penn and was bumped up. See Low-A write-up for more.

Mick VanVossenspent most of the season in the GCL; see rookie league write-up for more.

Cole Plouckgot sent to Auburn, had two appearances in 10 days, gave up just 2 hits and one run in 5 innings … and then was released. He had decent 2014 numbers in the GCL; this one is curious to me. I guess the team saw all they needed to see in XST. Outlook for Next Season: out of baseball.

Joey Webbwas released 6/25/15, losing out in the numbers game when the 2015 short-season college draftees started flowing in. He, like Plouck, clearly were not impressive enough during XST to merit any further consideration after run-of-the-mill 2014 seasons. Outlook for Next Season: out of baseball.

Yorlin Reynosopitched one game in the first week of the season, walked 6 guys and got demoted to the GCL. See Rookie write-up for more.

Ryan Ullmanngot stuck in XST to start the season, hooked up with Hagerstown 5 weeks into the season, got hit hard, was dumped to Auburn, had one appearance and then was summarily released. Quite a quick downturn of events for Ullmann, who was always going to be a long shot (30th rounder out of a small school). Outlook for Next season: out of baseball.

David Ramosthrew 2.1 innings of rehab ball for Auburn before returning to Hagerstown: see low-A write-up for more.

Two guys (James Bourque, Anderson Martinez) both spent the whole season on the D/L; both are starters who should compete for spots in 2016 after the lost season. Outlook for Next Season: Short-A rotation competition.

Another two guys (Chase McDowell, Michael Sylvestri) were put on the “restricted list” at some point in 2015, usually indicating voluntary retirement. Outlook for Next season: out of baseball.

Summary

Auburn was not a good team this year; they were 35-58. And a lot of that was due to the “brain drain” of the pitching staff; inside of a short season 11 guys got bumped up and beyond. Some of them quickly dominated Short-A and earned their promotion, others trickled up as the season moved on. In the end, the staff was anchored by a quartet of college lefty 2015 draftees with strikingly similar numbers, and it should be interesting to see how this group performs moving forward.